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Guo Juan’s Internet Go School is currently accepting enrollment for Group Classes for the 2011 second term, which begins April 9/10. The group class participants will also receive a 20% discount on annual membership for her Audio lectures. The teaching faculty includes Guo Juan 5P, Jennie Shen 2P and Mingjiu Jiang 7P. For details visit the Group Class website.

Lee Sedol Advances to Siptan Semifinals: In the 6th Siptan quarterfinals on March 6, Lee Sedol 9P defeated Jen Youngkyu 5P by resignation. The Siptan is Korea’s equivalent to Japan’s Judan and is sponsored by the Wonik Group. Cho U Wins NEC Cup: Cho U 9P defeated Yamashita Keigo 9P by resignation in the 30th NEC Cup final on March 5. This is the third NEC Cup title for Cho. His first was in 2005 and the second in 2007. In addition to the NEC Cup, Cho currently holds three other titles, the Oza, Judan, and Kisei. Yamashita, only one title short of Cho, holds the Honinbo, Agon Cup, and Ryusei. Li He Wins Female Mingren: Li He 3P (r in photo) defeated Chen Yiming 1P (l) in the 2nd Female Mingren final, which was held March 2. This is the first Mingren title for Li as last year’s title winner was Zheng Yan 2P. Li currently holds the Female Xinren Wang title, which she will defend against Li Xiaoxi 1P sometime in March. Cho U Takes Game 1 in Judan: On March 3, defending Judan champion Cho U 9P defeated Iyama Yuta 9P by resignation in the first round of 49th Judan title match. Cho has held the title for the past two years and this is Iyama’s first Judan title match. The Judan is a best of five-game series and the second round will be played on March 24th. Mukai Chiaki Wins First Round in Female Meijin: In the first round of the 23rd Female Meijin title match, which was held March 2, Mukai Chiaki 4P defeated defending Female Meijin champion Xie Yimin 5P by resignation. Mukai and Xie faced each other in last year’s title match, with Xie winning the series 2-0. Xie has held the title for the last three years and is arguably the strongest female professional in Japan. The second round will be played on March 11th.- JustPlayGo; edited by Jake Edge

The march of the Chinese “tiger cubs” continues in China as Tan Xiao 4P and Li Zhe 6P stormed into the final of the 11th Ricoh Cup last week. Li Zhe 6P (l) defeated Wang Lei 6P in the semi-finals to reach the final, while Tan Xiao 4P (r) – a student of Nie Weiping 9P (playing Tan Xiao, at right) – defeated Hu Yaoyu 8P in the other semi-final. This is the first Ricoh Cup final where the tiger cubs have reached the final and yet another milestone for the group of rising young go professionals that the Chinese media has affectionately dubbed “the tiger cubs generation.” Earlier last month, Zhou Hexi 4P, another tiger cub, became the challenger for the 25th Tianyuan title. The Ricoh Cup final will be held in late April in China; the Ricoh Cup is a Chinese domestic tournament, not to be confused with Ricoh Pair Go, which is a Japanese tournament.- Jing Ning; adapted from her original report on Go Game Guru, which includes game records of both semi-finals.

If three weeks of studying go in China sounds good to you, check out the new Shanghai Go Camp. The intensive program runs June 24 to July 18 at the Shanghai International Studies University and is being organized by a 20-person team including Chinese professionals and 6-dan and 5-dan Chinese amateurs, including Zhao Fan 5d (r). “These guys really know their go and can really help you improve quickly,” writes Antonio Egea in a guest post on Go Game Guru. Egea was the Spanish representative to the 2010 World Amateur Go Championships in Hangzhou, China. The planned schedule includes focused study and play as well as visits to local go clubs, traveling and sightseeing. And with over 300 restaurants near the camp venue, there will plenty of opportunities to explore Chinese cuisine. Click here to download the registration form with full details.

Kong Jie’s slump continues. Kong Jie 9P suffered another loss on February 27 when Wang Lei 6P defeated him by resignation after only 103 moves in the quarterfinals of the 11th RICOH Cup. This loss eliminates Kong from the tournament and from defending his RICOH Cup title. BC Card Cup 2nd round. There were no big surprises over the February 26-27 weekend in the second round of play in the 3rd BC Card Cup tournament. Of the 16 players left in the tournament, Korea enjoys a considerable advantage with 11 players going into the third round while China has only 5 players left in competition. This does not at all suggest that China is out of the picture. On the contrary, in the 1st BC Card Cup, China went into the third round with only four players and Gu Li 9P won the title 3-1 against Korea’s Cho Hanseung 9P. China remains strong with veteran Gu Li, Zhou Ruiyang 5P who is currently ranked #1 in Chinese rankings (as of December 31, 2010), and Chen Yaoye 9P. The third round will be begin on March 10th and continue through March 20th. Cho U takes Kisei lead. In the fifth round of the 35th Kisei title match, Cho U 9P defeated Iyama Yuta 9P by 2.5 points on February 25, taking a 3-2 lead in the series. With two rounds left to play, Cho is only one game away from winning the Kisei title for a second year in a row. Iyama, however, must win the remaining two games if he hopes to become the next Kisei. The sixth round will be played on March 10,11. Piao Wenyao wins LG Cup. In the second round of the 15th LG Cup final, held February 23, Piao Wenyao 9P (l in photo) defeated defending LG Cup champion Kong Jie 9P (r) by resignation, sweeping the series 2-0. This is Piao’s first international title win and his third title as a professional. Given this win according to the Chinese promotion system, Piao is now a 9 dan. Click here for both game records on GoGameGuru. Rui Naiwei 1-0 in Female Kuksu. In the first round of the 16th Female Kuksu title match, Rui Naiwei 9P defeated Kim Yunyoung 3P by resignation on February 22. Rui has won the Female Kuksu eight times and this is Kim’s first Kuksu title match. The second round of the three-game series will be played on March 8th. Park Yeonghun vs. Lee Changho in Maxim Cup. In the last semifinal round of the 12th Maxim Cup, held on February 22, Lee Changho 9P defeated Mok Jinseok 9P by resignation. Lee now advances to the Maxim Cup finals to face Park Yeonghun 9P who defeated Choi Cheolhan 9P in their semifinal match on February 21. With this win, Lee is keeping hopes alive that his present title-less state will soon be reversed. In order to do that, however, Lee will need to defeat Park who won the Maxim Cup title in 2008. The Maxim Cup is one title that has eluded Lee. In fact, this will be his first time competing in a Maxim Cup title match. Zhou Hexi in Tianyuan finals. In the final round of the 25th Tianyuan challenger decision match, held February 21, Zhou Hexi 4P defeated veteran Yu Bin 9P by 2.5 points. Zhou will now face defending Tianyuan champion Chen Yaoye 9P for the title.- JustPlayGo; edited by Jake Edge

Piao Wenyao wins game 1 in Lg Cup final. The 15th LG Cup final began on February 21 with two of China’s top players battling for the title. Piao Wenyao 9P won the first game in the three-game series, defeating Kong Jie 9P by resignation after only 123 moves. Kong is the defending LG Cup title holder. Piao, while not having many titles to his name, is still ranked fairly well (12th) among Chinese professionals and is looking for his first international title. Rui Naiwei wins the Female Myeongin. Rui Naiwei 9P (r in photo) successfully defended her title for a sixth straight year on February 18 by defeating Cho Hyeyeon 9P (l) in the third and final round of the the 12th Female Myeongin title match. She won the series 2-1. In the second round, on February 15, Cho defeated Rui by 7.5 points. This will be Rui’s tenth title win in the Female Myeongin since the tournament began in 2000. Her only loss was to Cho in 2004, which is the only time that Cho has won the title. Cho U evens the Kisei. In the fourth round of the 35th Kisei, held February 18, Cho U 9P evened the series to two games each by defeating Iyama Yuta 9P by half a point. The fifth round will be played on February 24-25. Xie Yimin wins Female Kisei. Xie Yimin 5P defeated Umezawa Yukari 5P in the second round of the 14th Female Kisei title match, winning the title 2-0. This is the second year in a row that Xie has won the Female Kisei. Note that the match was played on February 1 and made available (broadcast) on February 16.- edited by Jake Edge from reports on JustPlayGo

Three young Chinese players who reached the Tianyuan semi-finals last week — Zhou Hexi 4P, Li Haojie 4P and Shi Yue 4P — are part of a group of rising young professionals that the Chinese media has affectionately dubbed “the tiger cubs generation.” The three cubs were joined in the semi-final by stalwart Yu Bin 9P. Yu, who has been the Chinese National Coach since 2009, is extremely pleased with the progress of the younger players. He says that the time is ripe for some of these younger players to make their breakthrough. According to Yu, these young guns are very adept in the game, especially in the middle game and endgame where they typically make fewer mistakes than their older counterparts. Yu says the young players can sometimes lack experience in direction of play and vision during the opening, and can sometimes have trouble adjusting psychologically to the intense competition. However, he goes on to say that the best way to combat these challenges is to play in more high profile games such as the upcoming semi finals. This year’s Tianyuan – the 25th — has been full of surprises, with some of the favorites, Gu Li, Kong Jie and Chang Hao all eliminated in the first round. The Tianyuan tournament is one of the major go tournaments on the Chinese domestic circuit, similar to the Chunwon tournament in Korea and Tengen tournament in Japan. All three tournaments use the same characters in their name, which can be roughly translated to “the origin of heaven.” Tianyuan is also the Chinese name of the center point of the go board. In the semi final, Zhou Hexi prevailed over Li Haojie. Shi Yue couldn’t overcome old hand Yu Bin, setting up a final between teacher Yu Bin and student Zhou Hexi.

Update 2/21: In the final (r), Zhou Hexi defeated teacher Yu Bin. Yu, playing black, was winning for the first half of the game, but there was a reversal after black made an oversight in the top left corner. Zhou held on to the lead to win by 2.5 points. With this tournament win, Zhou becomes the challenger for the Tianyuan title and will take on Chen Yaoye in a three-game match. Chen, another young Chinese star who just turned 21 in December, has already proven himself in top tournament play. In 2009 he took the Tianyuan title from Gu Li and he held it successfully against Gu in 2010. Can he make it three in a row?- Jing Ning; adapted from her original report on Go Game Guru

The legendary Chen Zude 9P underwent a successful operation for pancreatic cancer last week, reports David Omerod of Go Game Guru. Chen, the current president of the Chinese Weiqi Association, was the first Chinese professional to become 9 dan after the introduction of professional ranks in China. “He is now recovering in hospital, where he has been visited by the Chinese Women’s Weiqi team,” Omerod tells the E-Journal. “He is in high spirits and intends to start playing weiqi again soon.” Credited with popularizing the Chinese fuseki, Chen also wrote a popular autobiography, ‘Beyond Self’, which was inspired by his first battle with cancer 30 years ago.

The United States Youth Go Championships will be held March 26 and 27, with finals on the first weekend in April. The tournament will be held online, and will select the US representatives to the World Youth Goe Championships, in Bucharest, Romania. The finals will also determine National Dan, Single Digit Kyu (SDK), and Double Digit Kyu (DDK) Champions. The winners will receive trophies, and prizes will be awarded in the following brackets: 5-7 dan 1-4 dan, 1-4 kyu, 5-9 kyu, 10-15 kyu, 16-20 kyu, 21-25 kyu, 26 and up kyu. Contestants will be entered into a pool to receive $400 scholarships to this year’s AGA Summer Youth Go Camp, courtesy of the AGF, 16 Scholarships will be awarded. The Junior Division is for youth 11 and under, the Senior Division is for youth under 18 as of August 1, 2011. Only US Citizens may enter the finals, residents may compete in the qualifier; the winners must be able to travel to Romania for the finals, August 12-19 (expenses are covered for the youth players, but not for parents). To register, e-mail youth@usgo.org with your name, AGA #, date of birth, AGA rating, KGS ID, and citizenship.

Choi Cheolhan wins the Kuksu. Choi Cheolhan 9P (l in photo) added yet another title to his growing list this year by defeating Lee Changho 9P (r) by resignation in the fourth round of the 54th Kuksu on February 14. Choi won the series 3-1. This also marks an unfortunate milestone for Lee Changho, who is currently without a title. It’s the first time since the late 1980s that Lee has not held a single title. Did Lee Changho resign too early? In the 24th Fujitsu Cup preliminaries on Februrary 9, Lee Changho 9P lost to Won Sungjin 9P by resignation in the first round of play, thus eliminating him from the main tournament. This will be the first time since 1994 that Lee Changho has not participated in the main tournament. The controversy surrounding this particular game is the question of whether Lee resigned too early. Cyberoro is reporting that pros who have analyzed the game believe that Lee should not have resigned and are puzzled with his decision. Others cite Lee’s precipitous slide in performance over the past year, among other things like his recent marriage, as an explanation. For further updates on the controversy, see the discussion at Life in 19×19. Cho U and Yamashita Keigo advance to NEC Cup final. In the 30th NEC Cup semifinals, Cho U 9P and Yamashita Keigo 9P both won their respective matches against Kono Rin 9P, current NEC title holder, and O Meien 9P. Cho and Yamashita will now face one another in the final (date TBA). While Cho has participated in the NEC Cup title match three times and won it twice, in 2004 and 2007, this will be Yamashita’s first.- JustPlayGo; edited by Jake Edge